


A Reversal of the Wicked

by P_Jo



Category: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Games), Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Video Games), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M, Torture, prompt drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-04 17:15:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16350836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/P_Jo/pseuds/P_Jo
Summary: Talion had made the decision, the one he had been postponing for so long only to realise that it had been the only choice.When the time came, he said yes.He would serve the Dark Master.He had only one condition, however, and he knew Sauron had no obligation to grant any wish to him, but he knew that the Dark Lord would be delighted to acquiesce to this particular request.





	A Reversal of the Wicked

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Herzlosengel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herzlosengel/gifts).



> Many thanks to HerzlosEngel for reviewing and correcting this.  
> (End notes bear some explanation on how this little nonsense thing came to be.)

The rain tapped relentlessly on the blighted land of Mordor, cutting through the arid ground and mixing with blood and dirt. It was just another grey day in the wasted lands: Talion had stopped counting them long ago, and it had been longer since he had last been able to see any hint of significance in his actions.  


He could have gone on forever like this: building armies, fighting, and dying on and on again. Falling into habit. Today it felt strange to wake up from slumber with naught to do. His nerves urged him to move and his senses were alert from decades of routine, but there would be no fighting today. So, he watched the water as it poured down and forced himself to stay there while he savoured the rare moment for contemplation and…peace.  


He had made the decision, the one he had been postponing for so long only to realise that it had been the only choice.  


The unavoidable.  


When the time came, he said yes.  


He would serve the Dark Master. He had only one condition, however, and he knew Sauron had no obligation to grant any wish to him, but he knew that the Dark Lord would be delighted to acquiesce to this particular request.  


“I want to see him.”  


The statement caused Sauron to smile softly; the face of an angel and almost tender with understanding. Talion was embraced by a warm feeling of safety and shelter, and he suddenly wondered why he had waited and feared this moment so much.  


The Dark Lord took Talion’s hand and guided him into a world of shadow where the contours of reality blurred away until there was only infinite darkness, soft and padded. Their footsteps made not a sound, nor did their clothes rustle or their armour rattle. But somewhere in the darkness, something feeble caught his eye. A persistent halo, yet not so bright. Faded as if its light was being consumed by the obscurity itself.  


When they were close enough, Talion saw the familiar figure. Kneeling and still, wrecked with wrists locked up in chains whose extremities were lost in the void. His head dangled and hung low while a curtain of black hair concealed his face so that Talion couldn’t tell if he was conscious.  


He was unlike how Talion had known him. Without armour and wrapped only in a torn tunic. Covered in scratches and bruises over the deathly white skin. Naked knees scraping where the ground should have been.  


For a mere moment, the pity of the tortured creature overcame his resentment.  


“Celebrimbor,” he whispered, startled by the sound of his own voice as it echoed crisp and clear in his mind and ears and was seemingly amplified by the silence.  


The figure flinched, even more startled by the sound than Talion had been. He raised his head with eyes wide in shock, catching sight of the man and Sauron; the Maia kept a respectful distance behind Talion and watched with amusement as the scene unfolded.  


Talion was taken aback from seeing the face of Celebrimbor as he had been in life. Not the marred, blurred feature of the wraith he had come to know, but smooth skin and deep blue eyes. He held the Elf’s stare, and he fought to ignore the churning feeling in his gut.  


“Talion!” Celebrimbor croaked back with a ragged voice, “What did you do to yourself?” It was a statement more than a question, and Talion felt hatred burning up again.  


“What did I do? What YOU did to me!” he raised his voice, now careless of how loudly it resonated.  


“This is your doing. Do you not like what you’ve created?” he mocked, holding out his arms in a display while laughing bitterly.  


“I’m sorry,” Celebrimbor let his head fall again and his body shook from a chocked sob.  


“I’m sure you are, given your current position,” Talion smirked with pure malice.  


Celebrimbor continued to whine pitifully, as if he hadn’t heard the sardonic remark, “Every single moment I’ve spent here since I left you, my only wish has been to tell you this: I’m so sorry, so sorry. About everything. About condemning your family, about keeping you here and dooming you to this life. About using you…and then betraying you…It’s all on me. It’s all my fault. The thought alone is more excruciating that any torture I could ever endure,” in the end his voice broke and he just sobbed and let the tears fall to the ground, creating small, bright circles that were like drops of light on the still surface of pitch black water.  


Talion stared at him coldly, “You’re an egocentric, presumptuous, miserable, pathetic excuse for an Elf. You’re only sorry for yourself. You disgust me.”  


Talion felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Sauron offering him his hammer with deference. Talion took it and the Dark Lord grinned warmly like before, giving him a sense of plenitude that he had never felt before.  


“I will leave the two of you alone,” he said cheerfully, “There is much you need to discuss,” he walked away and faded into the darkness.  


Talion was left alone. He studied the hammer in his hands, turning it slowly and he heard the distant echoes of Celebrimbor and his loved ones screaming in pain as Sauron used the same tool in their slaughter. He thought that it seemed fitting that the object would continue to torment Celebrimbor in death and beyond. He grabbed the Elf’s hair and jerked his head up unceremoniously and Celebrimbor offered no resistance. He looked so beautiful and submissive in the dim light; tears running down his face through eyes shut tight, and pathetic whimpers slipping through parted lips.  


There was something that fascinated him about having the one who had ruined his entire life at his mercy. Talion bent down to look closely at the features he had learned to love and hate. Those trembling lips – cracked and bruised – were particulary inviting: they seemed frail and hurting, they called for him to break them like a thin veil. Talion leaned to seize them in a mockery of a kiss, violently smashing his tightly closed mouth against them. 

The mere impact of skin and teeth caused the cracks on the dry skin to open and bleed; but not content, before parting, the Nazgûl bit into the soft meat and tore away, tasting the coppery exhilarating flavour of blood on his teeth.  


He tugged more strongly to force the Elf's whole body to bend backwards and not drop hanging loose to the chains once more. Talion paced slowly in front of him, contemplating the bright blood that spilled abundantly from the Elf's carved bottom lip and trickled in beautiful red drops on his chin.  


“Please,” Celebrimbor whimpered between the tears.  


“What are you begging for, Celebrimbor? Do you want mercy? To be forgiven?” he came closer and whispered, “Even if I were to concede, would it matter?”  


“Please,” Celebrimbor repeated swallowing, “Make it hurt.”  


Talion raised the hammer to strike.  


  


Later, the rain poured down on him again. Its insistent tapping on his face woke him up from the numb state he had fallen into and reminded him that he was once again in the real world. He felt like awakening from a strange dream where his conscience had been fading. He grasped for awareness.  


He tried to recollect what had happened, why he was there; bits and parts of his memory were slipping away. In a shocking moment of clarity, he realized that ultimately he would lose himself as a result of fully becoming a Nazgûl. Soon there would be nothing left of Talion; his name already sounded stranger. Shortly he would not care to struggle for recalling it anymore but right now, in this brief glimpse of self-awareness, he fearfully clinged to the most vivid memory left in his mind: Celebrimbor. Talion had broken the frail last legacy of their bonding definitively, and had sealed his binds to Sauron forever. Had it been worth it? Talion had relished in his revenge while it had lasted, but now he was not so sure.  


Retracing the events that had led to the fall of the Forger of Rings and even before to the corruption of the Dark Lord, Talion saw himself as the new link in the endless chain of evil. He looked at his own hands as they shook uncontrollably. Celebrimbor's blood had disappeared when he had returned to the real world but Talion could still see its phantomish shade, undoubtedly a perverse trick of his mind. How he had wanted to be righteous once! He had sworn he wouldn’t allow himself to be corrupted like Celebrimbor had been. He had wanted to break that chain and set everything right.  


But he was doomed from the start. The very moment he had been touched by evil had set everything in motion. He never had the choice. There was no going back. It was too late.  


If only he could have the chance to erase everything that had happened. To walk long before he was born, long before Celebrimbor had died and was treading on Middle-Earth proud and fair. When he could have been saved, and along with him, Talion as well.  


The moment passed and with it all guilt and all hope, and all thoughts of the Elf wraith were wiped away. He would serve the Dark Master, finally.

**Author's Note:**

> Due explanation: Roughly at the beginning of this year, my friend HerzlosEngel got interested in my Shadow of Mordor Time-Travel prompt, which was something along the line of "Talion travels back in time to Eregion to try and stop the creation of the Rings of Power". She turned it into an ambitious project that is still in the works, which you may know in its early form as ["I Faer Nîn Nínia Aden A Goveninc"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13759743)  
> 
> 
> Before that fic was even started, I had typed this drabble to coax her into writing the story (however it's not actually linked to her fic story-wise).  
>  It is a simple scenario that showed how twisted and sad Talion and Celebrimbor's relationship could get, a desperate shout from me to "please make things better between them". The unlikely ending - with Talion reasoning about what may have been if only he could have reversed those events before they set into motion - was in fact a clear reference to the aforementioned prompt. I am aware that it comes off as completely random, but I decided to keep it because it was the reason why this drabble was written in the first place. I hope it will make more sense after this explanation.  
> 
> 
> This scenario inspired me to draw some scenes from it, so I eventually decided to post it as a stand-alone short fic. I am not a native English speaker nor a writer, and the only reason this is readable is that Herzlos herself reviewed it with her amazing skills (though there may still be mistakes because I've edited it again after her correction).  
> 
> 
> I hope you enjoy, please let me know what you think!  
> 
> 
> PS: Later I will post the artwork in its original 'comic strip' format without text (as I think it looks better that way), on my [dA](https://www.deviantart.com/p-joart), [Tumblr](http://p-joart.tumblr.com/) and possibly [fb](https://www.facebook.com/PJoArt/). So... if you are interested feel free to check. xD


End file.
